A fuel injector or fuel injection valve for the direct injection of fuel into the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine (as in DE 103 17 148 A1) has a valve housing, a piezoelectric, electrostrictive or magnetostrictive actuator mounted on gimbals which is accommodated in the valve housing and is in operative connection with a valve needle, an electrical connector, and a supply lead producing an electrical connection from the connector to the actuator. The supply lead has two lead strands. Each lead strand is made up of an electrical conductor secured in position on the housing side, a contact pin which projects from the actuator and is disposed diametrically relative to the conductor in the valve housing, and a flexible strand section connecting the conductor to the contact pin.
The electrical conductor is a sheathed round wire that is passed through an endpiece closing the valve housing and having an inlet for the fuel, and the bare contact pin projects from the actuator on the front side. The flexible strand section has the form of a spring leaf which extends transversely to the axis of the valve housing. The spring leaf is soldered or welded with angled leaf ends to the bare end of the sheathed round wire on the one side, and on the other side to the bare contact pin. The flexible strand sections in the two lead strands in the form of spring leaves extending transversely to the axis of the valve housing keep unavoidable axial movements of the actuator—which come about owing to energizing of the actuator, different thermal expansions and unavoidable hydraulic losses of a coupler possibly disposed between the actuator and endpiece—away from the sheathed round wires secured in position in the endpiece, and thus prevent bending stresses and abrasions of the round wires and increase the resistance of the valve to wear.